Retiring Marines scope out entrepreneurship

It looks like a typical business seminar with men in dress shirts and slacks scribbling notes while speakers lead PowerPoint presentations about marketing, product pricing and planning.

But there's a difference. This meeting room is deep inside Camp Pendleton, and the attendees are career Marines in their 40s and 50s exploring what to do with the rest of their lives. They're in various stages of the retirement process. This day they are asking themselves, as millions of Americans do each year, whether they should own a business rather than seek a job.

I'm here to talk about whether and how to start a small business, topics I've written and spoken about for 24 years. The attendees call me ma'am and hold open doors and pull out chairs for me. It's a subtle reminder that this is no ordinary seminar. They were told explicitly not to dress in uniform. This is practice for civilian life. Their place cards have first names, no ranks. When they introduce themselves they don't give their rank because, well, no one does that in civilian life, except maybe Ph.Ds.

Rick Lamprecht, a longtime Orange County business consultant and one of the volunteers spearheading the seminar, tells the group that their 20 to 35 years in the Marines have given them skills highly valued in private companies, but they need to learn the lingo to convey the value to potential employers or clients.

Lamprecht, Tom Faust, Gerry Dubois and Ed Johnson initially put together a three-day workshop on making the transition from military to civilian jobs and then added the fourth day on entrepreneurship at the request of some of the retiring Marines.

In many respects, Marines are entrepreneurial: self-disciplined, hard working, building things out of chewing gum and baling wire if necessary. When the Register photographer's car breaks down, seminar attendee Master Sgt. Milton Andrews, who wants to start a photography business, offers to take photos for this column. After 26 years, Andrews is weighing whether to go four more years or pursue a career in what has been a hobby.

"This could be great but there's a lot of uncertainty" in civilian life, he admits.

If he decides to retire, Andrews will join more than 2.5 million U.S. military veterans who own businesses, about 9 percent of all U.S. firms, according to research for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.

"America's veterans are entrepreneurial and highly motivated to create new economic ventures," said Advocacy head Winslow Sargeant.

Not everyone in the entrepreneurship seminar is sure he's cut out for entrepreneurship. Some come from families full of small-business owners. Others come from families of career Marines. Some have skills they're eager to turn into businesses. Others have bad memories of relatives' failed ventures.

"It's a mix," says Rob Clark with the Marine Executive Association, a networking organization dedicated to helping retired Marines. "Many get out and think they want to work for the government, then after a while they realize 'I can do this better.' And that's when they start a business."

Some at the seminar have already begun.

Col. Hank Donigon, who retired after 34 years, and Master Gunnery Sgt. Sonny Gambrell, in for 30 years, have started Joint Services Military Consulting LLC in Fallbrook. They are facilitators for entities that want to interact with or do business with a base or military group. The idea came up when a group of university researchers wanted to do brain research on Marines and after 18 months still couldn't get started.

"They didn't know who to contact on base, how to link up with people for testing," Gambrell says. "We did more in seven days than they had been able to do in 18 months. We had been talking about starting a business for two years. A lot of people want to improve their communication with Camp Pendleton, to provide resources. We think we can market our experience in the community."

Tennessee native Master Sgt. Jermaine Dupree, coming up on his 22nd anniversary in the Marines, is unsure that his future includes business ownership but has an entrepreneur's eye for opportunity.

When Marines move, they must clean their quarters to satisfy inspectors or pay a Marine-approved cleaning service $200 to do it, he says. That company gets too busy so he sees an opportunity to start a cleaning service as a subcontractor who can meet Marine specifications. Another idea: The company that has a contract to repair washers and dryers on base gets busy. A subcontractor could step up and help, Dupree believes.

"I've been thinking about (starting a business) for 10 years," Dupree says.

Gunnery Sgt. Jose Gonzales, a New Yorker who anticipates retiring in 16 months, has so many business ideas that he's spending the day at the seminar to decide how to pick which one to pursue first. His wife is from the Dominican Republic and their contacts would help them build a vacation excursion business in that country, he says. He also would like to run a golf equipment shop or a sports bar. But the latter two, he says, may require too much startup capital.

"I have a lot of buddies who just want to find a 9-to-5 job," Gonzales says. "But there's so much more out there to do. I want to be the guy who provides the opportunities for those other people."

Another attendee, Staff Sgt. Hector Ayala, wants to start a business to set an example for family in Chicago who originally came from Mexico. "I really enjoy helping others improve. Very few in my family have ventured outside their circle. I want to open other possibilities for people; 'I can do it so you can do it.'"

Ayala is researching starting a business that does engraving and wordworking, which he has done as a hobby for years. He's already explored startup costs.

"I like hard work. I'm not afraid of rejection; I've done military recruiting," he laughs. "It's the financing that keeps me from going all out."